Monument to mark Heysel disaster
BRUSSELS, March 23 Reuters
Brussels will mark the 20th anniversary of the Heysel Stadium disaster with a 60-metre square 'sundial' sculpture incorporating a light inset for each of the 39 soccer fans who died.
The sculpture's designer, Frenchman Patrick Rimoux, said the stainless steel monument outside the replacement stadium for the now-demolished Heysel would incorporate Italian and Belgian stone and an English poem to mark the sorrow of the three nations.
'It's to commemorate the tragedy and to say, 'don't forget',' Rimoux told Reuters.
Most of the fans who died were Italians after a wall collapsed following a charge by Liverpool supporters during the 1985 European Cup final against Juventus.
English clubs were subsequently barred from European club competition for five years.
The quarter-final draw for this season's Champions League, pitting Liverpool against Juventus for the first time since Heysel, has stirred up memories of the tragedy.
The ground, since torn down and rebuilt as the King Baudouin stadium, was used by Belgium during Euro 2000.
A detailed design for the monument will be revealed at a news conference in April, Rimoux said. It will be opened on May 29, exactly 20 years after the disaster.
Rimoux said it would be engraved with English poet WH Auden's 'Funeral Blues', perhaps most famous for its use in the film 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'.
A spokeswoman for the mayor's office confirmed a newspaper report that the sculpture would cost close to 200,000 euros ($263,600) but did not give any further details.
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